The Central Anti-Crime Director of the State Police Prefect Francesco Messina declared: "A complex investigation, which lasted almost three years, conducted in various parts of the national territory and also abroad, which led to the seizure of large quantities of trafficked drugs by transnational organizations that have been prosecuted thanks to the cooperation of the various Police and Judiciary involved. The activity of evaluating and analyzing the encrypted communications that the suspects used massively to carry out international drug trafficking was decisive. As for the Italian law enforcement action, coordinated by the Central Anti-Crime Directorate of the State Police, it is significant to recall the quantities of drugs seized (about 120 kg of cocaine and 20 kg of cannabis) and the amount of seizures of goods and money, carried out for a total value exceeding one million Euros”
In the early morning of Thursday 22 June, the State Police carried out 27 pre-trial detention orders in prison, as part of the investigations coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Bologna - District Anti-Mafia Directorate - against individuals residing in Italy and abroad . In the same operating context, searches were carried out and seizures of apartments and money were carried out. At the same time, further searches and arrests were carried out in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
The operation, carried out jointly between the Police Forces and Judiciaries of six European Union member countries, under the coordination of Europol and Eurojust, dismantled several criminal networks made up mainly of subjects of Albanian origin, responsible for having imported into the continent and distributed dozens of quintals of cocaine for years, making use of companies in the road haulage sector also operating in Romagna.
The investigations were conducted by the Central Operational Service of the Central Anti-Crime Directorate of the State Police and by the Mobile Squads of the Forlì and Modena Police Headquarters which, following the monitoring of an Italian dedicated to the drug trade, residing in Forlì, reconstructed a extensive and ramified network of cocaine and hashish traffickers, able to import from Belgium and Spain, using specially modified vehicles, quintals of drugs, which are then distributed to intermediate-level suppliers residing in northern and central Italy.
From the investigations, initially coordinated by the Forlì prosecutor's office, it emerged, in fact, that the Italian citizen was in business with two Albanian partners in the transport of large quantities of cocaine to Europe, through the use of a Forlì-based logistics company.
In response to what was hypothesized, on 19.08.2020, in Aosta, the Forlì Mobile Squad seized a load of 28 kilos of cocaine with the consequent arrest of two couriers.
Subsequent investigations made it possible to document the stable presence in Emilia-Romagna of at least two criminal associations aimed at international drug trafficking: one in the province of Modena and the other between the provinces of Forlì-Cesena and Rimini, connected to each other and hierarchically structured having a multitude of men, weapons, money, means of transport and, above all, logistic bases.
In the province of Forlì and Rimini there is a stable presence of companies in the logistics sector which have transported drugs from northern Europe for years. In the province of Modena, the presence of 10 people of the 27 suspects was found, which made it possible to document the trafficking of about 320 kg of cocaine and the exchange on one occasion of 1 million and 300 thousand euros for imports from Belgium of a quantity equal to 43 kg of cocaine then seized as described below. Facts committed and ascertained from December to May 2020.
The people captured by the Modena Mobile Squad were identified and arrested with the support of the local Mobile Squads, in the provinces of Genoa, Bologna, Alessandria, Salerno and Lodi, thanks also to the help of personnel from the crime prevention department and of the anti-drug canine units. Of particular interest is the capture of one of the recipients of the precautionary measure, residing in Genoa, identified on a train near the Salerno railway station returning from Calabria. During the contextual searches in the aforementioned provinces, 30 euros in cash, mobile phones and drug packaging material were seized. Of the 10 people, searches for the capture of 3 Albanian citizens not present on the national territory are still underway.
On the investigative and executive side, the Forli-Cesena Mobile Squad operated, with the help of the local mobile teams, in the provinces of Rimini, Frosinone, Teramo and Ravenna and Bari, capturing 10 people, plus 1 arrest in the Netherlands and 1 in Germany., excluding 5 people who are still to be searched because they are not present on the national territory. One of the arrested was stopped by the Bari Flying Squad on a ship returning from Albania. During the executive activities, numerous luxury goods (cars and valuables) were found and seized, as well as 17 euros in cash and 150 gr. of cocaine.
The turning point that certifies the existence of an interconnection of the two associations in question, is given precisely by the seizure carried out in Ravenna by the Forlì Mobile Squad in December 2020, of over 40 kg of cocaine and by the consequent arrest of the two couriers involved in its import; the latter was planned and completed by the two aforementioned associations: the Modena one appeared as the purchaser and recipient of the consignment, while the Romagna one was called upon to physically take care of the collection, transport and delivery of the consignment.
Subsequently, during the course of the investigation, further and valuable findings emerged which made it possible, overall, to seize 114 kg of cocaine, 37 kg of hashish, over one million euros in cash and arrest 13 people, two of whom were fugitives for years and in execution of European arrest warrants.
The operations carried out on the national territory by the Mobile Squads of Forli-Cesena and Modena for the capture of the 27 suspects saw the total use of 130 agents of the State Police among operators of the various Mobile Squads to assist in the provinces of residence of the suspects, Departments crime prevention and anti-drug canine units.
In the province of Modena, in particular during the course of the investigative activity, a further group was also identified, again of Albanian origin, not directly connected with the suspects affected by the precautionary measure, which made it possible to arrest 5 people in flagrante delicto in March 2021 in possession a total of 11 kg of cocaine, 5 kg of hashish and the cash sum of 37 thousand euros.
Overall, the investigative activity made it possible to document and collect evidence on 36 episodes of transnational importation of narcotic substances such as cocaine and hashish, carried out in the period between March 2020 and June 2021, for a total weight of over one ton of cocaine and a ton of hashish.
The entire investigative activity carried out simultaneously at 06.00 on 22 June 2023 in Italy, Germany, Holland and Belgium in the presence of Europol and Eurojust staff, saw the use of 640 police officers, 35 arrested, 51 house searches .